My friends at Arc Europe sent me some goodies in appreciation for working with them on the Arcana Heart 3 poster. I want to share with you today, what they sent me.

This week has been pretty crazy for me. I received an unprecedented six packages in total! That’s almost one package a day! Four of the packages were from figure preorders that were suddenly all filled at once. Two more were from Zen United.

It was a usual day for me, when I heard the doorbell ring. But it still seemed strange seeing the mail lady so often. She was already saying “I’ll see you again soon!” like it’s a regular thing. “Enjoy the weather…” I said sarcastically as I looked up at the dreary sky. It’s been quite a number of weeks since we’d seen rain. Maybe even a couple of months now. I can’t really tell or remember anymore, since I spend most of my days indoors. But now that I look out the window, I miss those sunny days. Should have gone out more…

The two packages I received from Zen was a poster tube, and an artbook-shaped box. I could hear something rattling inside. Upon opening the package, I got this:

Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus – Limited Edition. It goes without saying that I was ecstatic. The box was sturdy, and thick, like from those high-end department store gift boxes like Hugo Boss. Just the box itself makes this one of the best Limited Editions I’ve ever seen. (If you’re interested, you can buy one at the Blazblue Store here)

Lifting the lid of the box though, I was greeted with yet another surprise:

There were a bunch of art cards, including one rather Yuri Noel and Rachel art card, the Zen United signature envelope containing them, and several copies of my art card, as well as two copies of the A.B.A. Guilty Gear Giclee prints (only 200 of these were printed!) Seems they retail for over $400 each!

A close up of the Noel and Rachel art card. My two fav characters. Dream come true. :3

A keychain that comes with the Arcana Heart LE. Very cute! I wonder who did the artwork for this…

A close up shot of my art card. I might give away some autographed ones in a contest. Want one?

Absolutely gorgeous quality prints. These things are staying sealed in their board backings. Sorry, NOT giving any away.

Shown above is what comes with the LE of Arcana Heart 3. It comes with a mouse pad, a soundtrack, artbook, art cards featuring each girl and their moves list, and a case for the art cards and soundtrack. Plus the LE box itself, and the game itself.

In case you didn’t know, North America NEVER got an LE of Arcana Heart 3. In fact, the only available edition of it is DIGITAL DOWNLOAD. You heard right, you don’t even get a physical copy! So if you want one, and own a PS3 (because the PS3 version is not region locked, you can purchase one at the Blazblue store. Just so you know, I don’t get any commission or kickbacks from this. This is purely me spreading my love and support for awesome localized LE stuff! If you’re not going to buy one, at least show your appreciation and support for localization and voice how awesome you think Zen United/Arc Europe is by commenting on their facebook page.

A close-up of the mouse pad shows that it’s very high quality. The colors are vibrant, and the lines are crisp.

Noel is very sad that virtually everyone has bigger boobies than her.

How can anyone not like boobies though?

The artbook is very thick, and retains its original Japanese text and formatting. For purists only!

Gorgeous concept art that you can learn from!

More pretty art!

My own artwork, now printed on a poster! These are NOT available in store, and are a limited run as well. At the moment, they are only obtainable at the MCM Expo coming up in London. If you’re thinking of attending that, drop by the Zen United Arc Europe booth to see if you’re lucky enough to get this poster. While I won’t be there to sign it, just having a copy is immediate bragging rights. Even I don’t have many of these.

Hmmm… doesn’t that dress look familiar…?

Here’s a youtube video of the last 15hrs of the painting. (I did not record the sketching part, since there’s a lot of planning and back-and-forth involved with that)

A word before I end this post – a lot of my fans look at my work and wish they were me. They wish that they had my skills to land opportunities such as this, and get awesome goodies. Let me share with you a secret – you can. The point of me blogging and sharing my work has always been to encourage budding artists to keep working at it, and never giving up. I share my successes and my failures to show that I’m just a regular guy like you. It says so in my Vision Statement. Keep reading, keep learning, and most of all, keep drawing, and you can have it all.

Credits to those involved with this project. Miku says “Bye!”

Please share this post with others so that they too, can be encouraged and inspired.

I create stuff in my mind, and try to barf it out onto tangible mediums such as Photoshop, and video game art. Sometimes, I get paid to do it because I'm a freelance artist working in the video games industry.
Getting paid to do what I love (video games, and art) is my dream come true!

Wow that was some epic loot you got there. I can understand why you’d love your job. In all honesty who wouldn’t anyway :).

I can admit that I’m definitely among the crowd of those whom admire your skill and hope to be there with you some day. I definitely look up to you and aspire to become like you as an artist. I have no shame in admitting it either :).

I’ve been wondering for quite awhile though how you got the contacts in your network that gave you the opportunity to soar as you have :). I suppose everyone has their methods ;).

I just recently read your vision statement and noted how brilliant it is :). I never knew the actual symbolic reason for your alias–though it did inspire quite a number of images in my head. I like your take on the name.

I also just realized who wore that dress haha. Quite clever buddy ;). I felt that it looked familiar but couldn’t quite put me finger on it. Then I realized it was the front of the dress that your loli-goth character on your website background wears :D.

There is no shame in admitting who inspires you, at all. There will ALWAYS be someone better than you, and you can either think of it as a negative thing, or think that there will always be a higher star to aim for.

In terms of contracts, a lot of it has to do with being in the right place at the right time, but also being prepared for when it happens, because otherwise, you will not be able to grab the opportunity.

The name originally didn’t have any meaning to me. It came about randomly over a decade ago. It’s only in the past year or so that it’s taken shape to mean what it means now, which I find interesting that I’ve “become” my namesake rather than the namesake being the driving force.

Definitely true about those being better than you :). I always view it like climbing a ladder with people on a higher rung than you and people on a lower one than you. The thing is there’s tons of people who’d just climb as high as they can and not even care about those beneath them on the symbolic ladder.

I’m always glad when I see there’s someone who’d sooner help someone try to get higher on the ladder (Like yourself) compared to someone doing the opposite (Like unfortunately, most).

I’ve always felt that it’s the responsibility of having knowledge to bestow it to others who’d listen. I mean what’s the point in only self-profit anyway. That’s a very lonely road in my opinion :).

This is no doubt one of the reasons I try to be as humble as I can. Since no matter what, I’m definitely not ever going to be the best haha :). I can just try my damned hardest to be ‘my’ form of best :).

I feel fueled now! Time for a hell of a ton of drawings after working a bit on my next blog post :D. I need some better anatomy/life drawing books haha. Any recommendations ? I’ll have to stick to using stock photos for the time being being that I couldn’t find any figure drawing workshops or classes in my vicinity >,<.

I think that it’s important to share knowledge in order to better each other, but you’re right, not many artists are willing to do that. I think it’s because it’s such an oversaturated market, everyone is overprotective of their own work, they don’t want people to copy. The thing is, everyone has their own unique style, even if using the same techniques. Sharing has no bearing on making you less of an artist. People need to realize that.

It’s fine to be humble, but it’s also fine to be proud of what you do. When you are proud of what you do, people will respect you more because they know you value what you are doing. That’s when people will listen when you share.

Look up Atlas of the Human Anatomy for Artists. Also, anything by the master “Andrew Loomis” is absolutely incredible, and is public domain too!

I believe Akysys are the ones that handled the North American localization. Take it up with them, I suppose. I believe Zen United tried to persuade them to release a physical copy, but for whatever reason (it could be very valid) they chose not to. I’m not to question publishers’ judgements anymore because I know very little about their marketing stats. Perhaps they chose digital distribution because they figure the cost of physical distribution doesn’t work out considering their target market? I’m not sure.

If you’re interested, take a look at the blazblue store. The PS3 editions are all region free.

Thanks, glad you like the work. It was their suggestion to put in the shout outs.

I’d probably enter a contest for an art card done and autographed by you. And thanks for saying the thing at the end that people like me CAN get as good as you are. thanks for being an encouragement of mine

I’m one of those people wishing I was you right now. I love the Rachel x Noel card, it looks so hot. Unfortunately, I don’t own a PS3 so I can’t play the Arcana Hearts series. I’ve seen my friend play it though, and that character designs look nice.

PS3 price dropped again, so it might be a good idea to get one, especially if you’re looking to buy a Blu Ray player anyway.
Don’t be discouraged, Nopy. Being an artist is just one way to “succeed” depending on what your definition of success is of course… you can succeed in anything, and get whatever you want from it, just in a different method.

I really appreciate everything that they’ve done for me. I’m very happy that they like and appreciate my work enough and have the ability to show it by sending me all this cool stuff. It actually means a lot to me because they’re more than “just clients”. They’re friends whom I’m willing to put at top priority if they ever need anything from me. That’s how it works.

I were accompanying and tempting my friend to buy it a few weeks ago.
Never realised that LE of Arcana Heart 3 isn’t US version before, and US version is only available as download version.
I really like the art book and art cards with moves list.

But I don’t remember seeing that mouse pad or key chain inside the LE box.
It’s unfortunate that neither of us realise that there are English language LE with even more bonus.
I should have made him buy this version instead. XD

Btw I also saw his Blazblue LE artbook that have your artwork inside.
It looks cool.
I were tempted to take it home with me that night and hoping he forgot about it. XD

Heya CainHyde! Haven’t seen you comment here in a long time!
The special Oppai Edition with the mousepad and keychain are only available through the Blazblue store as an exclusive. As far as I know anyway. I could be wrong.

The Blazblue LE artbook is actually available for separate purchase on the Blazblue store as well. 10 pounds, I believe.

Haha… ^^
I usually only read your post via RSS feed.
I enjoy reading them but seldom I have anything that I want to comment.
Usually even if I’m trying to leave a comment, I ended up erase it somehow. ^^;

Stop it.
I’m already trying my hardest to forget artworks section when I check the store website yesterday. XD
There are several interesting things that I wanted including that artbook, but Mr. Wallet forbid me.
Next year when I have more freedom with budget for hobby perhaps.
Lol…

Awesome stuff, it must feel amazing to be able to be a part of the gaming world like that. =3

I’m definitely one of the jealous people, but I gave up art a long time ago and now I’m just sticking to figure photoshoots. I’ll leave the artwork to the true talented people like you. =P

I keep wanting to get a PS3 but I haven’t had the spare cash for it… hopefully I’ll still be able to grab those limited editions whenever I actually get around to being able to afford one. They look rather nice!